Hi Lora! I am in very far southern Love County, so far south that I am almost in Texas. We are in a very rural location less than one mile from the Red River and we have what seems like millions of birds. I am feeding them this year, which in the past is something I have not done--well, I feed them in winter but not the rest of the year. I believe the drought of the last two years and the wildfires have combined to limit the amount of wild food available to the birds. Thus, feeding them seems to be necessary. They do spend a lot of time in my garden, mostly eating bugs, but will occasionally help themselves to some produce. They only seem to bother tomatoes as the first ripe ones are getting ripe....and, after that, they don't tend to bother them as long as easily accessible drinking water is available. We have had record breaking rain here in Love County, too, as has most of Oklahoma in 2007, and the raised beds in my garden have fared better than the parts of the garden that do not have raised beds. Unfortunately, our neighbor's land south of us sits about 8' higher than the garden and water drains down into the garden, both on the surface snd underground, for weeks and weeks. This winter I hope to raise the raised beds even higher, from their current level of 4"-6" above grade, to maybe 12" above grade. I think you will enjoy this forum. I love it. Not only do we 'talk gardening' and share information, ideas and experience with one another, but we also serve as a major source of support for one another during trying times....even if those trying times are not related to gardening. This is a wonderful on-line community. Dawn

Doubtful. There is only one known spider species that eats plant matter, and it has a very specific diet that does not include tomatoes. You were almost certainly seeing the nymphs of stinkbugs or squash bugs or related bugs, which often look like little spiders with red or brown bodies. And the "pecking" was probably still from birds or mice or something, and smaller pests were just being opportunistic and taking advantage of broken skin or just coincidentally there. The pecks could even be from birds trying to eat the bugs and coincidentally stabbing your tomatoes as well, although it's far more likely to be birds eating your tomatoes and the bug nymphs coincidentally hatching/feeding in the vicinity. Maybe, though very unlikely, the spiders were newly hatched and thirsty and drinking the liquid from the tomato. But newly hatched spiders are extremely tiny, and spiders only congregate in groups when they are first hatched, as almost all species will eat one another if they hang out together in groups. Bottom line: spiders will not eat your tomatoes and are basically always beneficial in the garden.

Before our current bird-pecking problem (thanks for some solutions, BTW), we had whole tomatoes that would just disappear. One day they'd be just about ready to pick and the next day when we planned on picking them - poof! - they'd be gone. Completely gone! One day, by accident, we discovered the culprit: our Lab mix pooch. She was quite sneaky about it too. As we peeked out a window from the house, we discovered that she often had at least 1 tomato as dessert after dinner. She'd go out into the garden and sniff each tomato, passing over the green ones and the semi-ripe ones until she found one at the peak of ripeness. Then, she'd carefully, get the whole thing into her mouth and gently tug on it until she dislodged it from the vine. Afterward, we could see that she was quite proud of herself! She's now passed over Rainbow Bridge and our current dogs show no affinity for the tomatoes. We kinda miss her antics...

In years past I've used CDs. Seems to work. Never put 'em out this year. Netting also works, but can be a pain to work around. Not so sure that the birds are searching for a water source. April - June we had 1.5 times our normal rainfall. It wasn't until the middle of June that I started noticing bird pecks in tomatoes that barely had any color. Fortunately by then my harvest had peaked. Good luck with the CDs!